Shepherds of Haven (WIP) (DEMO UPDATE: 3 Aug 2021)

I agree with trouble even though I’m still interested in a romance with tally.

I’m curious about the Equalist plot so I’ll follow Trouble first. I’m also intrigued how Trouble actually measures up compared to the Diminished because of his “enhancements”.

It’s not in the jurisdiction of Shepherds but Equalists seem like an immediate threat. Though somehow, why do I feel like a demon will pop up just when we leave with Trouble? :thinking:

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how could you to this!? at least you should add “can’t decide” option :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

im sorry Tally, i can’t follow you, i owe it to Caine to investigate what is wrong with his friend, so i have to follow trouble :sweat_smile:

and then Trouble calling me
Trouble : "Luke, will you come with me?"
Me : OF COURSE!! i'll gladly follow you wherever you go~ <3 <3 <3"
Tally : (-______-)

LOL :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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This is very beautifully crafted thus far. The way you draw readers into the story early with this feeling of intrigue and mystery is something to admire. I really enjoy the direction of this and I hope for your success in the process of creating this.

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Grabs Trouble and Tallys into a huge bear hug and starts singing “Why can’t we be friends!”

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Yeah, DA:I isn’t Skyrim and it doesn’t have the most important mods to kill boredom: Quest and NPC mods. For Skyrim Interesting NPC’s is my main quest mod and I use some of the new lands ones (along with some to make the guys, including my mc more sexy), that said I’ve still got to actually finish Dragonborn and a lot of the guild questlines.

Yes, Bioware tended to do best with relatively narrow and tightly focused narrative, character-driven games. But since Bethesda and others (GTA5, cough, cough, not that GTA is in any way comparable to a true RPG anyway) were amazingly successful with the open world model I think they and EA though they just had to follow, disregarding the fact that open worlds was never Bioware’s strength and the fact that Bethesda’s open world games in particular have always relied on a great deal of mod support to really make them shine, not to mention playable on occasion.
Which is a level of mod support and tolerance Bioware has not been exactly comfortable with since the first Neverwinter Nights.

With its developer being a Polish company I don’t even know if it is going to be legal for them to mention homosexuality at all in any potential future games with the way their PIS(s) “party” is having a party pissing on all EU values and principles, not to mention their own Constitution. :unamused:

All my local friends who are actually gamers and even some of my colleagues were always raving about the Witcher, but Geralt as a main character has never drawn me in, particularly with that whole collect women as cards thingy. But then if I’m going to invest real time and money in a CRPG these days a gay mc is pretty much a hard requirement for me, which tends to mean games with a custom mc in practice, since no major developer is ready to go for an openly gay or even 50/50 male bisexual protagonist in a major (RPG) title that features actual romance. :unamused:
Which is why most new games I buy and play these days tend to be visual novels, indies or come from this site.

Well…duh…Trouble of course, who else is going to keep the cutie out of “trouble” when he appears to go off half-cocked. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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@Morphine thank you! I love tallys but my moral code does not allow me to ignore friends.

@Gwenstn same here. I’m a complete everything interesting guy and there’s a lot interesting things in those games.

Back to this game though. Does anyone else think we will see the MC’s friends and family again? I mean the WoP just made them disappear and that could mean anything. They could be trapped in a pocket of space where time has stopped for everything in there.

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I was talking about the previous games, not DAI. DAO had companion and expansion mods too. I’m still on my first playthrough of DAI and I don’t mod first playthroughs unless it’s a bug fix or something. DAI isn’t very mod-friendly because EA doesn’t want people to touch their precious Frostbite engine lol. Anyway, YMMV so let’s just get back to the topic.

I hadn’t considered that tbh. I just thought they were annihilated down to the smallest molecule or something. It could be a neat plot point tho. The whole pocket dimension idea can be linked to the MC’s possible god lineage (?)

I rarely opt for a female love interest first but TALLYS. I can’t. She was everything I have ever dreamed of… until she disregarded Trouble’s suspicions. I feel really bad for both of them but I’ll definitely follow Trouble. Yet I don’t want to be a dickwad and just… leave her like that. I wish we could call after her before she leaves or have a small conversation at least.Although, it wouldn’t be the first time a COG game did this.

So… Croelle. I finally noticed he has gloves in one of my playthroughs. Could he be tied to the Equalists or am I just paranoid?

Also, does anyone know how to increase the dagger or magic skill during your day off? Or will this become available once new characters join? It’d be cool if we could train these abilities by ourselves until then. Unless the stat checks will be low enough to ensure it doesn’t inhibit our gameplay? I don’t know, at this point I’m rambling.

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It would be nice if we could have a scene afterwards. Perhaps after we deal with the whole situation, depending on how that plays out. Where she confronts us about our decision to go with Trouble. Maybe she can apologize if she’s wrong? Or we just get a chance to explain ourselves to her like you said.

I have noticed that it is a lot easier to build up a relationship with Tallys than it is with Trouble or Blade. So if I just take a small hit to the relationship bar it wont affect me much.

It doesn’t matter. As long as I can have a high relationship with everyone at once. Because at this point, I’m planning on a harem. :weary:

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This is really good. Better than I expected. At first, I got the impression that this would be something like Choice of Rebels, working to overthrow the oppressive Autarchy by gathering a following that grows until you finally throw down the tyrant, then deciding what will become of this Empire you have conquered.

I was a bit disappointed that this wasn’t what you would be doing, that is why I initially resisted joining the Shepards, and had to forcibly resign myself to such a fate. It chafes to submit myself to a power I deeply loath (having a certain weakness for magic, mages in particular, like I do), but I suppose that is how a lot of people here feel, huh? :wink:

Despite those misgivings, I did enjoy the story regardless, and I gave out an audible “awww” upon finding the end of the script. I am rather curious as to where this story will go, and I will be looking forward to any updates that you might have for us. :slight_smile:

And I would follow Trouble. Not because I genuinely care for the Norms, but because I am a Mage and am curious about the magic being used here. It would be interesting if we could find any notes or tomes or scrolls with whatever pecular magics the Equalists might know. Not to say I would allow them to live, of course. They do nothing but cause trouble, so best be rid of them.

As a side question, have you written other works, @rinari? I would be interested in anything else you have written. You are a good writer. :slight_smile:

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Heh, my mc is kind of the opposite, of course while he doesn’t care about Norms (or mages or hunters for elves) in general he does happen to care for Caine and Trouble, so he does it more for his friends then anything else. As far as the magic goes, my mc mostly does believe technology to be superior to it, after all the Norms did prove that quite handily during the Castigation, didn’t they? Which is why he uses the gun as his primary weapon and magic only as a backup/secondary “weapon”.

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@GenericGem I’m going to keep as mum as possible, but I think that if you stick out the chafing period of the story, things might go places that might please you! Maybe. Who knows! I don’t know what I’m talking about! :hugs: And thank you for your kind words! I have published a few short stories and am finishing up work on my first science fiction novel at the moment–maybe I will post about it when I’ve sent it off to my agent and have a publishing date. :slight_smile: Thank you for your interest!

@awkward_viking Dagger and magic trainers will show up quite soon! The stat checks for dagger use is scaled to be lower until then, of course. :slight_smile: It is there as a “harder” weapon option for folks who enjoy a challenge, though, as there is a chance to fail recruiting that character point blank.

@Tinyblake Thank you for your wonderful encouragement! I was losing some steam on the game today but your words really fueled me. :slight_smile: Thank you!

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As our Lord, @rinari intended, no doubt. lol


I was not aware that the dagger is supposed to be the most challenging weapon. :thinking: I guess I’m just used to DnD and other fantasy series making it nbd for rogues to kill giant monsters using teeny weeny blades. Either way, I was already planning on making my main MC focus on guns because Trouble is a sexy good teacher, and as @idonotlikeusernames said, the Castigation proves that Norm tech is superior to traditional methods.

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I endorse the corralling of Shepherds into a Shepherd-harem but cannot be held responsible for the consequences. :innocent: It really ought to be the Order of the Sexherds at this point… I’m so sorry what was I thinking

And at this point the daggers the MC can buy are :zap: super effective :zap: against demons, but not so great against much else… not until you get more training in it, anyway. So I think it somewhat all balances out in some fashion!

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speaking of, is there gonna be a way to train in daggers, given that there currently isn’t?

Yes haha, as I said above, a dagger trainer will show up quite soon but needs to be recruited in order to train you! :slight_smile:

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And, ahem, how sexy informative will this teacher be?

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It’s the one you’ve been torn over with Blade since the start! :joy:

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[HEAVY BREATHING]

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